From the Salem Leader:
After spending two days scrutinizing the proposed 2014 budgets, it appears members of the Washington County Council have no other viable option than to establish a public safety income tax.
"If you pay property tax, you're going to get a credit, a wash of what the income tax is," Commissioner David Brown, who sat in on budget hearings, observed. "It looks to me like (that's) the best way to balance the budget."
The county council left no stone unturned as they looked at ways to reduce costs, including eliminating health insurance for county employees and giving them significant raises to help with costs of purchasing their own. Providing health insurance costs the county well over $1 million.
The council also considered layoffs; the county has 131 employees, 91 are paid from the county's general fund. David Hoar, president of the county council, said eliminating seven positions would free up about $120,000, figuring an average salary of $26,000.
"Anything that can relieve the pressure on the general fund, we're looking at," Hoar said at one point during the discussion.
But bottom line, the council needs to reduce the budgets by around $300,000 or come up with $200,000 to $400,000 more to support them
"You're either going to cut people or cut insurance, I don't know where else you are going to get the kind of numbers you are talking about," Mark Clark, attorney for council, said.
Last year, budgets funded by the general fund totaled $5,392,578 but the state ordered that to be trimmed by $329,060, reducing the amount to $4,963.518. This year, the council reviewed general fund budgets totaling $5,611,461; the county is facing more expenses than last year.
In addition to spiraling health care costs, there will be an election in 2014; the budget supporting that totals more than $96,000.
Also, there is the cost of operating the new jail, a big unknown at this point since there is no way to determine when the project will be complete and the new doors open. After meeting with Sheriff Claude Combs and reviewing estimates provided by the architect, the council decided to increase the detention center budget by $100,000, an estimate of the cost of operating the new facility for the last four months of 2014.
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http://www.salemleader.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=7237&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=20&S=1
